pepsi-cola trophie

OTTAWA AREA CHILDREN'S SKI PROGRAMS
By HARRY ROSEWARNE, Director of O.S.C. Juvenile Ski Program
The children's ski programs organized
within the Ottawa area were extremely
active last season and completed all their
schedules successfully in spite of the lack
of snow. The most active projects were
the Municipal Ski Council, the Midget
programs at Camp Fortune and Kingsmere,
the Juvenile program at the Ottawa
S.C. and a school at Fairy Lake.
These last two were new programs which
got away to a good start. The City of
Hull · Recreation Department sponsored
the school at Fairy Lake which was run
in a fashion similar to the Midget School
at Camp Fortune except that all 416
lessons were given in French. The Midget
Committee of the Gatineau Ski Zone
promoted this project which was carried
out very sucessfully by Paul Lajoie. The
Juvenile program, which was carried out
at Camp Fortune, came into being
through the efforts and financial backing
of the Ottawa S.C., the Journal newspaper
and the Gatineau Ski Zone. This
is a parallel program to the Midget one
and is designed for children aged 13, 14
and 15. The Zone hopes that it will be
able to foster the growth of Juvenile
programs in clubs within the area during
the coming seasons.
The Juvenile racing made a good start
following a pattern similar to the Midget
program. In all, six meets were held
covering downhill, slalom, cross-country
and jumping. Two of these were combined
meets, one for the I. Norman Smith
trophy which was a combined alpine
event and the other for the John Clifford
trophy which was a combined fourway
event for boys and a three-way
event for girls.
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Planning for all programs for the
1961-62 season is already in progress at
the time of writing ( 8 Oct.). Over the
past few years the better Midget racers
have reached such a high level of proficiency
that it is now impossible to set
a course which is sufficiently difficult
to tax their ability and at the same time
be easy enough for the beginner to try
his racing legs for the first time. To
remedy this situation two racing divisions
are to be introduced this year for both
the Midget and Juvenile race programs.
The first division will be for the beginners
which is to be handled entirely by
the individual clubs. It is suggested that
each club hold races confined to its own
members to provide the initial experience
and training. As each child progresses to
the stage where he is quite confident on
the intermediate hills and has learned
the rudiments of racing, the club will
advise the Gatineau Ski Zone Committee,
which is the governing body under
the Canadian Amateur Ski Association
in this area, that the racer is eligible to
race in the second or "Advanced" division.
Only "Advanced" racers will be
accepted in inter-club races. It is important
to note that an inter-club race
must be sanctioned by the Gatineau Zone.
Also, racers must not race in unsanctioned
meets within the Zone except in their
own club meets. This all sounds very
complicated but the procedure is necessary
to enable the Zone to properly supervise
racing activity and to ensure a consistent
upward path for amateur racers
from their first unsteady attempts,
through to the day when they can claim
a place on a National team.